CIA confesses: Yeah, we hacked the Senate’s computers

posted at 1:21 pm on July 31, 2014 by Noah Rothman

In March, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) revealed that CIA Director John Brennan told her that the intelligence agency he leads had improperly accessed Senate computers and secretly removed classified documents while the agency’s War on Terror interrogation tactics were under investigation. Feinstein alleged that Brennan told her the CIA took that action because the agency believed the Senate might have accessed documents that they were not authorized to see.

In a statement, Brennan said the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman had leveled “spurious allegations about CIA actions that were wholly unsupported by the facts.” While he confessed that the agency had made mistakes, the CIA director insisted that there was no merit to the charge that the agency had spied on members of Congress. “As far as the allegations of CIA hacking into Senate computers — nothing could be further from the truth,” Brennan’s statement read.

“The CIA did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it,” Feinstein said in blistering remarks on the Senate floor. “Instead, the CIA just went and searched the committee’s computer.”

The outrage over the CIA’s claimed abuse of authority was bipartisan. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the allegations against the spy agency “dangerous to a democracy.”

“Heads should roll, people should go to jail, if it’s true,” Graham said at the time. “I’m going to get briefed on it. If it is, the legislative branch should declare war on the CIA, if it’s true.”

War, it would seem, is imminent.

On Thursday, the CIA admitted to secretly and improperly hacking Senate staffers’ computers linked to the internal review of the agency’s tactics under George W. Bush.

“CIA Director John Brennan has determined that employees ‘acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding’ brokered between the CIA and its Senate overseers, according to agency spokesman Dean Boyd,” National Journal reported. In the statement, Boyd apologized to the committee chair and vice chair who were misled by Brennan.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), a member of the Intelligence Committee, quickly retorted on Twitter Thursday that the watchdog’s report “shows John Brennan misled [the] public, whose interests I have championed.

You do know why this is coming out now – it takes about 2 1/2 years to get anything done about the IRSVA CIA, and coincidentally, that’s about the amount of time Team SCOAMT has left in the executive branch.

Congress doesn’t need to go to “war” with the CIA. Just do their damn jobs and defund every program and position that is being used to abuse the United States constitution. It’s not rocket science.
KMC1 on July 31, 2014 at 1:43 PM
That’s why we need new house leadership. Strip funding from the holder to and let states deal with local crimes not Holder. Also defund HHS that would kill Obamacare and if Obama takes executive action strip him of the funding to do it.

All talk no action. You have to live under a rock not to know that the CIA doesn’t answer to anyone. It does what it wants when it wants it. All this shock about finding out they spied on congress is theater.

It’s great to get on message boards and chit chat about what is going to happen on this issue or that issue BUT in the end the whole system has been compromised to the point where we have no idea who is being extorted, threatened?… what pol is afraid of embarrassing secrets being revealed?

Or you can act like the idiot “smart set” and pretend that the CIA and NSA are a bunch of great guys and only use the snooping for pure and good intentions. Why have oversite, why worry about Clapper’s perjury** when there is already priestly fisa court and a saintly CIA administration that checks its own power//

^No one was even fired! If they admit this stuff, and admit that no one was fired, then imagine what they don’t admit. AND NOT ONE FREAKING CONGRESSMAN EVEN ASKED IF ANYONE WAS FIRED OVER THIS!
If you have a connection in the FBI,CIA,NSA then you ARE better than the little people.

Rush is talking about this right now.

The spooks have made a mockery of any notion that we are a country of laws and justice. Truthfully ,America, which was once the last best hope is now , maybe, a problem not a solution, not a blessing to the world.

**he got away with it – no one has even explained how he got away with it – no one ,including Clapper, denies that he perjured himself under oath to one of the highest legal institutions in the land, yet….?!?!?!?

All talk no action. You have to live under a rock not to know that the CIA doesn’t answer to anyone. It does what it wants when it wants it. All this shock about finding out they spied on congress is theater.

“I was briefed Tuesday by CIA Inspector General David Buckley on the results of an IG investigation. The investigation confirmed what I said on the Senate floor in March—CIA personnel inappropriately searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers in violation of an agreement we had reached, and I believe in violation of the constitutional separation of powers.

“Director Brennan apologized for these actions and submitted the IG report to an accountability board. These are positive first steps. This IG report corrects the record and it is my understanding that a declassified report will be made available to the public shortly.”